Ceara Donnelley is an interior designer based in New York City who is known for her emotionally attuned and nuanced approach to interiors. With a practice rooted in history and memory, she is adept at layering color, pattern, and carefully considered pieces to create homes that evoke the essence of the people who inhabit them. 

Ceara’s path to design wound through a childhood spent in formative family homes in New York City, Massachusetts, Illinois, and South Carolina; several years of school in disciplines other than design (History and Law, both studied at Yale); and a transformative chapter in Charleston, South Carolina, where the reimagining of a 1740s Charleston Single revealed her passion and talent for design. She founded Ceara Donnelley Ltd. Co. in Charleston in 2018 and has since been featured by House and Garden, Veranda, Schumacher, Introspective Magazine, The Current, Chairish, and Charleston Magazine. 

As committed to natural environments as she is to interiors, Ceara is the board chair of the Chicago-based Center for Humans and Nature. She also co-edited Frog Pond Philsophy: Essays on the Relationship Between Humans and Nature, a posthumously published work by her late father, Strachan Donnelley. 

Since returning to her hometown of New York City, Ceara has opened a studio in the Landmark Arts Building in the heart of the Chelsea gallery district. It is both the space from which she designs, and a place to see and acquire pieces that have caught her eye for their capacity to evoke delight, nostalgia, and beauty. She lives on the Upper West Side with her two teenagers and three cats.